The Hollow Boy
by MadClaireMaelstrom
Summary: Plagued by dreams of a ring, Harry grows his magic talent early, having noticed his powers. While at the zoo, he finds he can speak to a constrictor and he frees it. Things blow up from there... That's all I got so far. In progress, but I'm working on it. Man, I suck at summaries. This will change as I go on. Title subject to change.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I'm just a fan trying to further my writing prowess. Nothing you recognize is mine. This applies to this and all following chapters. Thank you.

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

Harry Potter was not a normal boy.

He was a freak. That's what his family called him, anyway. Normal people couldn't do what he could, he knew that. He knew a great many things. He seemed to absorb information like a sponge, devouring books like his cousin Dudley did food. By contrast, he was fed the scraps and whatever he could sneak out of the kitchen while cooking, or at night when his uncle Vernon forgot to lock his cupboard door.

Harry was small for his age, with a mop of black hair in a perpetual mess and a thin face marred only by a thinner scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. But his most striking feature were his eyes. Large and an unnaturally bright green, they seemed to stare into your soul, laying your sins bare for him to see. He was always looking at the ground, avoiding peoples gazes, if only because his uncle would beat him if he didn't.

But the freakiest thing about Harry Potter was the things he did when no one was watching. The thing he tentatively called magic. He had read books on science and physics, he knew how the world was said to work. But he could not think of anything that most seemed like his powers then magic.

At first he could just move things, have them float to his hand if he wanted them. So he'd called it the force, like in a movie Dudley watched once on the telly. But quickly he started to do other things. Transforming rocks, making fire in his hand that didn't burn him, conjuring bubbles. He was pretty sure the force couldn't conjure bubbles. So, magic.

As soon as he'd reached that conclusion, that there was a kind of power inside him no one else had, he'd started to experiment. He could get the magic to do whatever he wanted. Just small things at first, but as he practiced his strength grew, and soon he was able to pop from one place to another and fly in the air. He also found, that if he thought hard enough, he could make people do things. Anything.

Not all the time, in order to keep control he needed to concentrate on them, keep thinking of things for them to do. But, it was still useful. He was no longer beat, he was able to eat like a normal child and he managed to scare them into giving him Dudley's second bedroom. So now on the outside, the Dursleys looked completely normal. The inside was very different, though.

The Dursleys hated Harry, and growing up Harry learned to hate them in return. He had even thought a few times what it would be like to kill them, but he knew he'd get in trouble if that happened. Plus, while the Dursleys were awful, being in an orphanage would be worse, so he tolerated them. But the day he could leave forever would the best day of his life.

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It was just after Harry's seventh birthday that the dream had started.

It wasn't very detailed, a crumby ring laying in a shack, but the sight of the ring filled his little heart with longing like he'd never experienced in his short life. He _wanted_ the ring, it felt like his very being, his soul, was crying for it.

But he didn't know how to get to it. He'd tried to teleport there, but he didn't know where 'there' was exactly, and he'd ended up losing his right foot and a pinkie, reappearing a foot from his starting point. He'd been able to reattach them, but he'd lost quite a bit of blood and had been anemic for days afterward.

That had taught him to try and teleport somewhere if he didn't know where it was. So he waited, thinking maybe the dream would expand and show him a sign of some sort. After his desire for the ring had calmed some with his decision to be patient, it stopped coming as frequently. Just often enough that he remembered the ring, and the desire for it was always in the back of his mind.

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Dudley's birthday was always an event Harry dreaded. Watching his already spoiled cousin wallow in gifts he didn't need, or even particularly want, except to have them was disgusting, as was watching him gorge on cake when he was already in the same weight class as a baby whale.

Being dragged to the zoo wasn't on his list of things he wanted to do today either. He had wanted to spend the time alone sneaking himself some cake, and maybe continuing his magic practice. Or, heck, he needed to wash his clothes. But, he thought, wedged between Piers and Dudley, the zoo would be a nice opportunity to try his mind magic on animals. Vernon hadn't wanted him home alone, not after they'd come home early from the theater and all the furniture was stuck to the ceiling.

Harry followed at a distance, enough that it looked like he wasn't with them. After getting a lion to get up and prance around, and the zebras to line up, he figured his magic worked fine on animals as well as people. Animals were in fact a little easier to control, since they weren't resisting as hard.

He followed the Dursleys into the reptile house, glad to be out of the sun. He was in a better mood then he had been earlier, finding that he was rather enjoying himself, ignoring the Dursleys and testing his magic as he hadn't been able to before.

He glanced over at Dudley as he and Piers pounded the glass, trying to get a boa constrictor to move. It was doing a good job ignoring them, he smiled. After they had moved on he approached the glass, admiring the scales of the constrictor gleaming in the light of it's tank. He leaned on the railing, just gazing at the huge snake, when it woke, and stared into his eyes.

Harry was filled with a feeling of purpose as he stared at the snake, and he felt almost as if fate was guiding his hand as he reached out and touched the glass. The snake continued to look at him, seeming confused, though how he knew that he didn't know.

"Do you... want out?" he murmured, tracing a line on the glass. The snake seemed surprised, but slowly, if Harry was to believe his eyes, it nodded. He breathed out, feeling shaky, and then the snake did something even more shocking. It spoke.

"If you would free me, I would be very grateful. It gets very boring in here, and you are the first speaker I've met."

Harry stared, eyes huge, at the reptile in front of him. If he didn't have magic, he would have thought he was imagining it.

"You can speak?" he asked, looking over his shoulder first to see if anyone was watching.

The snake nodded again, this time it was unmistakable.

"Yes, but I am more surprised at you, little one. Those humans who can speak to us are rare."

"Is it because of my magic that I can speak to you?" he asked.

The snake shook it's great head.

"No, while only magic users may speak our tongue, it is only those descended from the first speaker who may converse with us. But," it said, "I wish to continue this conversation outside this horrible box, if you would release me." It sounded hopeful.

Harry looked around. The reptile house was fairly empty by now, and no one was looking his way. He turned back to the snake.

"Alright, but you can't eat anyone, and I'll have to make you invisible first."

The snake nodded vigorously, eager to be free.

Harry focused his magic on his fingers, letting it flow through them to the glass to make it vanish. The snake reached it's head over the railing, letting Harry do the same to it. As it's long body flowed from the tank, he ran his hand along it, the scales disappearing below his palm. Finally, he called the glass back in place, feeling the constrictor slither over his feet.

"You are very powerful..."

Harry could detect a faint hiss in the way it spoke, like another snake in the background. He looked around, seeing a slight shimmer in the air where the snake was. As long as no one touched the snake it would remain undetected. But, he realized belatedly, how would he transport the snake back to the Dursleys? Should he even keep the snake there, or would setting it free be better? It was warm now, but what of winter? He felt a sinking in his gut. He really didn't think this through.

"What am I going to do with you?" he sighed. The car was too small, and though his cousin was stupid, he wasn't stupid enough to not notice if suddenly there was a huge weight pinning him down. He could teleport it there, but he didn't want to risk losing a piece of his new friend.

Friend? Where had that come from? Harry didn't have _friends_. But, if he was honest with himself, he did rather like the snake. It was a beautiful creature, and the fact that it was also intelligent helped.

He sighed and made to catch up with the Dursleys, the snake following him.

While the car was small, if he floated the snake... or stuck it to the top of the car... Harry looked down at the shimmer following him.

"I don't suppose you have any idea how I'm to get you home?" he asked quietly, "Or rather, how much discomfort you're willing to put up with to get there?"

"If it is your home, master, I am willing to put up with much to get there."

"You don't need to call me master," he said. "I'm just Harry. Actually, I never asked your name, or if you're a girl snake or a boy snake. I'm sorry I can't tell," he said, embarrassed. The snake gave what amounted to a chuckle.

"I am a girl snake, human boy Harry, and I am known as Nagini."

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Harry ended up putting Nagini in the trunk of the car, after shrinking her a little. The whole ride home he had to focus on her presence in order to make sure the spell didn't wear off, so he ended up spending the ride in less discomfort then the ride to the zoo, since he was distracted. Harry had left the zoo before his family to sneak Nagini into the car, and had only just gotten back to tailing them before they were leaving, Dudley claiming boredom and Piers echoing him like the good little underling he was.

After they were home, Harry whispered to the trunk that he would be back soon. He couldn't open the trunk with Vernon watching, the man would ask questions. That night, he opened his window and floated down to the ground, casting a sort of cloak of silence around him as he unlocked the trunk with magic.

He held his hand out and Nagini put her head on it. As she slithered out, he undid the shrinking charm, leaving the invisibility for now. He gestured for her to follow him, floating her up to his window first amid her hissing. She didn't like flying. Harry followed, closing the window behind him and removing all the charms he had cast. Holding a spell for that long had taken a lot out of him, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Nagini was examining her surroundings curiously. Harry looked around for somewhere she could sleep. His aunt didn't come in his room often, but it would still be good if she was out of sight. Eventually they decided on under his bed, which she fit under curled up. He tried to anchor a spell to an object, weaving it into the molecules so he could ignore it once cast and it would stay. After a few tries he had a blanket that had a warming charm woven into it, and the floor under his bed was cushioned. He was ecstatic now that he had this kind of skill at his disposal. He could do so much with it...

Finally he raised the bed a few inches to give her more wiggle room. Nagini curled up under his bed and pronounced it satisfactory. Harry then bought up something he'd been worrying about.

"How am I to feed you?" he asked, laying back on his bed.

Nagini hissed, the snake version of a sigh.

"You could let me out to hunt when I'm hungry."

"But what's there to hunt out here but house pets? People would start to notice if they all started to go missing, and the zoo is probably looking for you by now."

They were silent for a minute, both thinking. Harry spoke after a while.

"What if I made a door in here? A door that led to some woods or something. That would work, right?"

Nagini hissed in agreement.

"That would be good. Goodnight Harry."

"Goodnight Nagini."

It was only after Nagini had fallen asleep that he remembered something odd she'd said. She had said 'only magic users'. There were people like him out there? Other freaks? He eventually fell into a deep sleep, drained by all the magic he had used that day.

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

**AN:** Alright, against my better judgement I'm posting this. I'm only working on chapter three now, and this is probably going to be shoddy, but this is only practice since I would like to be able to write well. Harry's probably going to be way over powered in this, but I'll try and power up his foes too, so he doesn't just cream everything in his way. I'm also going to put in this every little odd thing I have in my head, things not really seen elsewhere, so prepare yourself.

And the title is subject to change, if I can think of a better one.

Reviews to tell me how bad I write would be appreciated greatly. Thank you for reading this, if you bothered. I always read AN's, but...


	2. Chapter 2

Harry peered under his bed the next day, smiling a little as he listened to Nagini's breathing.

He had always been an early riser, and at the same time he would stay up till the moon was setting every night. He hated having to sleep, like a petulant child, and it took him more time then normal to fall into oblivion when his thoughts were always racing about his skull till the wee hours of the morning.

He crept downstairs, avoiding the creaky step near the bottom, and slunk in to the kitchen to make a cup of tea like he did every morning. He would read till the rest of the house was up, then he would make breakfast, since he couldn't stand his aunt's cooking.

Once he had mastered his mind control magic and liberated himself of most of the chores the Dursleys had assigned him Petunia had been the one to cook, at least until Harry had declared after the first meal that she was forbidden to ever cook again. At least while he was there.

After breakfast Vernon went to work, Petunia was outside tending her garden, one of the chores he had hated most, and Dudley was cooped up in his room playing computer games. Harry went back to his small room, closing the door behind him. Nagini was already up, coiled on his bed and looking grumpy.

"You left me," she said as soon as he turned around.

"Sorry, but you were asleep when I left. I didn't want to wake you, not when you looked so cute."

Nagini looked affronted, making spluttering noises. "I, _I_ do not look _cute_, human boy. I am a boa constrictor, a fierce, dangerous creature, not cute."

Harry hummed vaguely, sitting next to her. "Are you hungry?" he asked, feeling that was more pressing then the other questions he wanted to ask.

"No, luckily for you I had been fed before you freed me," she said, still slightly grouchy.

That meant he had time to figure out how he was going to make that door. He tentatively asked the question that had been bugging him since last night. "Nagini, yesterday you said something about magic users, like me. What do you know?" His heart was beating in his chest like it was trying to escape, and he felt rather light headed from nerves, though of course you couldn't tell it by looking at him.

Nagini set her head in his lap and he stroked her head, liking the feel of the smooth scales beneath his palm. It helped calm him. She sighed.

"I myself have met few wizards in my life, and never spoke to any of them. All I know is what I heard from other snakes who had been outside, who would visit sometimes. They spoke of how wizards hide themselves from the humans, they fear them and what they would do to them if they were discovered. They are cowards," she said, "but you seem different. You have a much bigger aura of power about you then any wizard I have seen. You seem destined for leading, not following like most."

Harry nodded, distracted. Of course she wouldn't know much, having been in a zoo her whole life.

"They also mentioned a powerful speaker they knew of. They called him Voldemort."

Harry felt his heart jump at the name, though he'd never heard it before. "Voldemort?" he asked, eager to learn of a person like himself.

"Voldemort... Well, I had heard that wizards divided their magic in to two types. Light magic, and dark magic. I do not know why," she said, "it seems stupid to do that. Once you have two different but similar things, you will have arguments about which is better. The wizards have been having wars over dark magic for as long as it has existed. Wizards who speak the snake tongue, descendents of the first speaker, Salazar Slytherin," she said, voice rather awed, like when people spoke of celebrities they were enamored with, "They have always been seen as dark, and snakes as evil creatures. Voldemort, being a speaker powerful enough to do something about it, was the leader of the dark wizards during the last war. It ended with his disappearance 9 years ago."

"What happened to him?" Harry asked.

"No one knows," Nagini said, "It was Halloween night, and he was going to kill a light family named Potter. The man and woman died, but somehow he could not kill the child. He has not been seen since, and that child has been hailed as the savior of the wizards."

Harry's mouth was dry. "What was the child's name?" he asked, feeling sick to his stomach. It couldn't be him, he thought. It was stupid of him to be this nervous...

Nagini thought a moment. "The child's name was Harry. Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived."

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After that, Harry had worried the thought that there was a good chance that he could very well be this 'Boy-Who-Lived' all day. He hadn't told Nagini his last name yet, and until he was sure he didn't really want her to know. There were a lot of Potters out there, and even more Harrys, so there was a good chance there were a few Harry Potters, and he just happened to have the same name as this savior.

His relatives had told him his father was a drunk, that he and his mum died in a car crash with him in the back, the only survivor, which was where he got his scar. He didn't even know what they looked like. But, his relatives were the kind of people to hate magic and all that was related to it. It wasn't too far a stretch to think that he was this boy savior, and the car crash story was a cover up so they could try and keep him ignorant of magic, though fat lot of good it'd done.

But if he was the savior of the wizards, what was he doing with his imagination-hating aunt and uncle? They were the worst sort of people he could think of to raise a magic baby. He should know.

Harry sighed. He and Nagini, who was invisible, had left the house for some fresh air, and to give Nagini a chance to be in a space bigger then any she'd been in before. She was excited, asking Harry questions about things they passed in the street. He tried to answer with out sounding like he was distracted, leading her to the park he went to whenever the Dursleys were being particularly annoying and he needed alone time. It was almost always empty, since most of the equipment was rusted or falling apart, but the swings were nice and there was a dense thicket of trees behind it, where he could broach the subject of his identity without witnesses.

He took a breath, figuring he should just spit it out, get it over with.

"Nagini?" he asked as they walked towards the trees.

She slithered over, the shimmer all that betrayed her presence before she spoke. "Are you finally going to say what has been bugging you?"

Harry stopped, standing in the clearing near the center of the trees. He dropped the invisibility spell, so he could see her if she got angry and attacked.

"I never told you my full name, did I?" Nagini shook her head.

"It's Harry James Potter."

Nagini was silent, and Harry continued, babbling now but unable to turn his mouth off.

"I've never known my parents, my aunt and uncle say they died in a car crash, and I have this weird scar on my forehead, see, look," he lifted his bangs. "I know it's stupid to think I may be this savior but I can't help but think it's a possibility, I mean... I just... You won't be mad, if it is me, would you?"

Nagini suddenly started laughing, writhing on the ground, and Harry stood shocked. He'd expected to have to fight to the death over it, not... this.

"Oh, Harry, Harry, you were really worried about _that?_ Please, you act like you were the only one to come to that conclusion." She slithered over to him, wrapping around his legs, and Harry had this sudden sense that he was being hugged.

"It was the obvious thing to think, and I am only surprised that you got so worked up about it. Even if it is you, and I will grant you that there is a high chance it is... I still would not hate you for it."

Harry suddenly felt weak as relief and a small amount of shame washed over him.

"I mean," she continued, "if it is you, you were only a baby and had no control over what you were doing. If you did kill Voldemort, it is because he tried to first and you were probably acting on instinct. I do not blame you," she said, "and I will always be on your side, no matter what. You saved me, gave me freedom and your trust, and for that I will always be your friend."

Harry felt his throat constrict, hot tears in his eyes. To go from having no friends in the world to this... He didn't deserve her, if he was willing to believe she would kill him. He hadn't trusted her, not completely, not until this moment when she had stated so bluntly her own trust in him.

He finally broke down, crying in the first time since what felt like forever. Sinking to the ground, he wrapped his arms around Nagini, and she held him in her coils until his tears had dried.

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

Back at #4 Harry and Nagini had been talking about how to make the door. He figured they should make a test one first, to see if it would even work. But to do that they needed to figure out how to make the thing first.

They had chosen a part of the wall, behind the door to the room where they would put it and they had an atlas open in front of them, trying to choose a destination. Eventually, Harry just flipped to a random page and stabbed down with his finger, landing on a tiny place that fit under his finger called...

"Albania?" Harry said, peering at the little country that lay between Greece, Italy and Romania. Nagini was watching curiously, having never heard of these places before.

"It's as good as any place, and at least it's on the same continent. Now..." he slid the atlas away and focused on the wall. He closed his eyes and envisioned what he wanted the magic to do, to shape a door that led to the forests of Albania, somewhere hidden. Placing his hands on the wall, he let the magic flow from him, shaping it to his will. He felt the wall shift under his fingers, but he kept his eyes shut and concentrated.

When he felt the flow of magic stop, he opened his eyes.

Where previously there was a plain wall an arched wood doorway now stood, small but large enough for a small 10 year old to get through. There was no actual door, instead a curtain of sorts fluttered in a nonexistent breeze. Harry reached out his hand, feeling a sense of elation grow within him at the sight of his work.

"Who will go first?" Nagini asked, moving closer.

"I suppose I should test it first, to make sure it's safe." Harry went and fetched a sock and a piece of string, tying them together and sitting back in front of the door. He tossed the sock past the curtain without ceremony, waiting a moment before tugging it back. When the sock came back same as before, dragging bits of soil and dead leaves, his heart leaped.

"Is it safe?"

"I believe so." Harry pulled the curtain back. Behind it, though, all you could see was the hall. He felt confused, letting the curtain drop. "Maybe..."

He dropped down and went through the curtain. And he tripped over a fallen branch.

He looked around at the vast forest he found himself in, and he whirled around, seeing a matching doorway behind him just sitting there, not attached to anything. He pulled back the curtain again, seeing nothing but trees. He stuck his head through, and he was back in his room.

As soon as his head appeared Nagini slithered through the door, and he pulled back to the forests of Albania. She was examining their surroundings, and Harry turned back to the door, thinking of how he could prevent other animals or a person from getting through to his room and freaking out the Dursleys. Maybe a kind of shield...

Nagini hissed worriedly behind him. "Harry, something is coming."

He spun around and saw a brief glimpse of a whirl of fog racing toward them before his head exploded with pain, and he sank to his knees, screaming.

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**AN:** Well... this took a while to write, and I'm still not completely satisfied with the 'I'm Harry freaking Potter' scene. At least not the beginning. Next chapter... well, we'll see what happens.

**Important!** Thank you to all who followed, favorited, reviewed or just made a mental note to keep an eye on this story! Or even if you just read it. I'm grateful for every bit of support you guys offer up, and it keeps my head above to waters of the sea of despair, and keeps me from deciding that I'll never be writer material.

Again, thank you, and if you would tell me whatever thoughts you have about the story they'd be appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

Blinding pain. A faint screaming the backdrop of this all-consuming agony. Harry lay on the ground, curled in a ball, his vision clouded with red. Another noise invaded his head, and with it a fresh wave of torture.

A higher screaming, that of rage, joined the screams he felt came from his own mouth, thought he had no sense of making them. All of a sudden he felt the pain stop as suddenly as it had come.

The sudden quiet ringing in his ears, he spat out a mouthful of dirt and tried to sit up but found himself pinned down by a familiar weight. "Nagini..." he croaked, and winced as his throat objected to him using it after such abuse.

He felt her uncurl from around him, and she came around to where he was facing. Perhaps it was his being a speaker that made him think she looked paler then usual, since he was sure no one else would have noticed. He sat up slowly, shaking a bit.

"Are you alright?" Nagini asked. This was the first time Harry had seen her scared, and he found that he wanted to reassure her, tell her everything was fine. Make it better, though he was the one who had been attacked by that... fog monster. He tried to stand up, but ended up falling back down again.

"I..." he coughed, "Be fine... in a mo..."

Nagini curled around him again and they sat together under the canopy of trees, keeping an eye out for that monster while Harry waited for his head to feel like it was on his shoulders. His throat felt raw, and all he could think of was getting back through the door and getting water.

After he felt mildly normal he stood, swaying a bit but able to walk. He and Nagini made their way back to the door, going back to #4. The first thing Harry did was stumble downstairs for a glass of water. As he stood leaning on the sink Petunia walked inside. She glared at him, taking in the dirt covering him and the sheen of sweat on his pale face.

"What have you been up to, bo- Potter?" she snapped, replacing her gardening gloves in their place by the back door.

"None of your business, but if you must know, I've been to Albania and back, after being viciously attacked by a fog monster. That answer your question, dearest aunty?" he shot back, slamming his glass into the sink and going back to his room to fix that damnedest door.

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Harry sat in front of the door, hands placed on the jambs, eyes closed and willing the destination of the door to change. Keeping his mind focused on an equally deserted place in Nagini's native Brazil. As before, he felt the shape of the door change under his palms. When the transformation was complete, the only thing that really changed was that the arch of the door was now a darker wood, and the breeze from the curtain warmer.

Nagini hovered over his shoulder, eager to get her first real look at the place she would have lived, if not for being a zoo-bred animal. Harry, though tired from the mess in Albania, tested the door as he had before, dragging bits of rotten foliage back into his room. Nagini went through first this time, and Harry followed after hiding the door from his relatives eyes with a kind of cloaking spell. Only he should be able to see it now...

And when he saw Nagini having a minor panic attack on the other side, he figured he succeeded.

"Harry! How did you get here? The door..."

"Sorry, I hid it after you left. If you could come here a moment I can try and make you able to see it."

Nagini came over and Harry placed his hands on both the door and her head, willing her to be excluded from the cloaking spell too.

"I see it now. It is good that you thought of hiding it, though next time tell me before, please. I had thought that you had left me."

Harry ran his hand down her scales. "I wouldn't leave you. You're my only friend, really..." He looked around at the ferns everywhere, the towering trees and trailing vines. The noise of other creatures rang constantly. "Is it as you thought it would be?"

"It is... I have never been as at peace as I am now. It feels familiar..."

"I guess that means you're home."

Nagini looked up at Harry. "I wouldn't want to leave you, though. This is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to stay forever, without you..."

Harry smiled and scratched her between the eyes. "I know. I love you too." She hissed in a pleased manner. "Well, I'm going back. I need a nap."

"I will come with. I do not need to hunt now." What Nagini didn't say was that she was still a little scared for Harry and wanted to keep an eye on him. He nodded and they went back through the door only they two could see.

And the first thing that greeted Harry was the back of his aunt, rummaging in his drawers.

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

Harry reacted instantly, blasting his aunt down in a rush of pure magic. She screamed, but Harry flung her against the wall, his eyes burning with the hate he normally suppressed. Petunia was still screaming, but when she saw a huge snake come from seemingly nowhere, her eyes rolled up and she fainted. Harry let her fall to the floor, and when Dudley rushed in to see what was happening he struck him down too. Now, with two bodies in front of him, he calmed somewhat. Vernon was still at work, but he should take care of this as soon as possible.

Nagini, slightly confused as to what had just happened, except that Harry was radiating anger, asked, "Should I eat them, Harry?"

Harry gave a small barking laugh and relaxed a little. "No, eating them now would cause bigger problems them they do themselves. No, I think I know what to do to them."

So saying he levitated them and took them downstairs to the living room, sitting them on the sofa. He stood in front of them, looking at them with barely concealed disgust. With a wave of his hand they were woken and stuck to their seats.

On waking and finding her demon of a nephew standing in front of her with an expression of loathing on his face, Petunia felt true fear, not just the usual wariness. Dudley whimpered, eyes wide.

"Well... what am I to do with you? I thought I had said before... that if you ignore me I would reciprocate the gesture. But now... I don't think I can trust you to keep to yourselves anymore." He stepped closer, and looked into his aunt's eyes, his gaze focused. Petunia's eyes glazed over and she stared at him blankly. "You are never to come into my room again. Neither of you," Harry added, looking at his cousin in the eye too, and Dudley's expression blanked. They nodded, faces completely neutral.

Satisfied that he'd fixed the problem, Harry released his aunt and cousin from the spell and turned away, to take care of something he should have done long ago.

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

He stood in the middle of his room, eyes closed and hands on Nagini, who was wrapped around his shoulders, shrunken again. Lifting one hand he focused his magic, making a larger form of what he'd done to the arch. Cloaking his room. No one could enter without his permission, through either door.

Before he'd asked Nagini if he could use her as an anchor, for both the spell on his room and the arch. The cloaking spells, he'd found, disappeared after a while if not tended constantly. And a spell this big would wear him out quickly if not anchored to something. He figured that if he used Nagini she would be exempt from any spells tied to her. But just in case he was prepared to stop at any moment.

Raising one hand he let the magic form a dome over him, growing until it covered his whole room, sinking into the walls and Nagini. When the spell sunk into her she started glowing, shining with faint green light, like Harry's eyes. Her own eyes wide, she floated off his shoulders, the shrinking spell wearing off, and as she hovered full size over his head her their eyes started to glow the same acid green, bright like stars had been placed in their sockets.

He felt powerful, more so then he'd ever been, and when his feet left the floor he didn't even notice. The aura surrounding Nagini expanded until the whole room was awash with the acid green light, four specks of light sparkling brighter then the rest where their eyes were. And then it was over, both of them being placed back where they were and the light fading, but left behind was the feeling of power in both of them.

Overcome with the sensation Harry fell to his knees for the second time today. Looking around the room seemed no different, except perhaps he felt safer in it then before. He looked at Nagini.

"I don't think that was supposed to happen, do you?"

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

That night Harry dreamed. He'd never had a dream that wasn't about the ring, so what he saw surprised him. He saw the fog monster floating through the forest, saw it possess a small snake. The snake looked straight at him. A new figure came out of the shadows, tall, dark, hidden under a long, black, tattered cloak. It lifted the snake, letting it curl around it's thin fingers. And then it- he, spoke.

"You could be great together, you know. You just have to reach out and take the stone." So saying he held out his other hand to Harry, offering him a ring. The ring. The ring that had haunted him for years. The ring he spent long sleepless hours thinking about, only to dream of it in the night. His ring.

Harry reached for it, desperate, but the figure withdrew his hand. "You need him first," he said, gesturing to the snake still in his other hand. Then he laughed and the dream dissolved into smoke.

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

**AN:** Powered by Coca-Cola. Open motivation. Yeah, actually you guys are the driving force behind my writing. The Coke is just the fuel. That dream scene just kind of wrote itself. Tacked itself to the end. Jeez, I wrote this all in one sitting. There goes my day. Couldn't post this since I was at my moms', and the computer with this was not. So.

Thanks again to all who care about his story. A writer's only as good as her fans, after all... I'd been ignoring this chapter until I'd posted chapter one and you started paying it attention. And then I write all this... Just wanna say thank you!

And feel free to review and point out anything wrong. If it's there I haven't noticed it and it's up to you to tell me so I can fix it.


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